Poets & Writers Theater

In this episode of the Fashion Neurosis podcast hosted by Bella Freud, French Moroccan author and journalist Leïla Slimani talks about the dangers of gaining recognition as a writer, discovering the timelessness of literature through Dostoevsky and Tolstoy as a child, and what it means to dress like an intellectual.

“When, under summer stars, you have built a cabin in the wilderness....” In this New Mexico in Focus interview, U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze reads his poem “Anvil,” which appears in his collection Into the Hush (Copper Canyon Press, 2025), and his translation of Tao Qian’s poem “Drinking Wine,” which appears in the anthology Transient Worlds: On Translating Poetry (Copper Canyon Press, 2026) edited by Sze.

In this World Literature Today virtual event, U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze, Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún, and Daniel Simon talk about the power and impact of literary translation and celebrate three new books, including Transient Worlds: On Translating Poetry (Copper Canyon Press, 2026) edited by Sze.

In this episode of the SlantCast podcast, Gregory Wolfe, founder of Slant Books, and Emily Kwilinski, the press’s managing editor, speak with author and industry insider Jim Hanas about the role of indie presses in the book business. Slant Books is featured in Small Press Points in the July/August 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this video, Michael Holtmann, president of the Center for the Art of Translation, and founder Olivia Sears, along with authors and booksellers, talk about the importance of literary translation and the need to build a permanent home for the center in San Francisco. For more information, read “A New Home for Translators in San Francisco” by Ilana Masad in the July/August 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“There really isn’t anything quite like a book to understand the perspective of others, and translated fiction takes that even further.” In this video, singer, songwriter, and host of the Service95 Book Club podcast Dua Lipa delivers the opening speech for the tenth anniversary of the International Booker Prize about the impact and importance of translated literature.

In this Cover to Cover podcast interview hosted by Emily Y. Wu, writer and translator Lin King talks about the nuances of Taiwanese and Japanese culture, and the process of translating Yáng Shuāng-zi’s novel Taiwan Travelogue (Graywolf Press, 2024), which won the 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature and the 2026 International Booker Prize. “I feel like the food was, in some ways, the toughest part for me to translate,” says King.

In this video, fourteen Black poets from ten different countries read in multiple languages and in translation for this 2024 Furious Flower Poetry Center virtual event hosted by Gbenga Adesina, who is featured in “New Ways of Seeing: Our Twenty-First Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February 2026 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this 2012 Library of Congress event, László Krasznahorkai reads from his novel Satantango (New Directions, 2013), translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes, and speaks about the evolution of his writing style and the relationship between author and translator. Krasznahorkai is the winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize for Literature.

In this 2021 Under the Volcano video, Cyrus Cassells reads a poem about Federico García Lorca that he began writing in Tepoztlán, Mexico. Cassells is the recipient of the 2025 Jackson Poetry Prize.

“When the time of your life is a time of earthquakes.” In this PBS NewsHour interview, Arthur Sze reads from his latest collection, Into the Hush (Copper Canyon Press, 2025), and talks about his life and work, including his discoveries while translating literature. Sze has been named the twenty-fifth poet laureate of the United States.

In this 7 Stories Up event at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, Jeremy Tiang talks about the impact of his award-winning debut novel, State of Emergency (Epigram Books, 2017), and how his diverse modes of playwriting, translation, and fiction writing offer him fluidity and freedom in a conversation with Reuben Gelley Newman.

“Translate literature and it will teach you how to write.” In this American Library in Paris event, Jhumpa Lahiri reads from her essay collection Translating Myself and Others (Princeton University Press, 2022) and talks about her latest book, Bone Into Stone (Sylph Editions, 2024), which details her experiences translating Ovid’s Metamorphoses from the Latin in partnership with the classicist Yelena Baraz.

In this Asia Society Switzerland event, South Korean author Bora Chung reads “To Meet Her” from her second story collection, Your Utopia (Algonquin Books, 2024), translated from the Korean by Anton Hur, and discusses how activism shaped her life and writing in a conversation with Serena Jung.

In this 2020 Wheeler Centre virtual event, Roanna Gonsalves hosts a discussion about womanhood in fiction and the power of translation with Fernanda Melchor, author of Hurricane Season (New Directions, 2020), translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes; and Mieko Kawakami, author of Breasts and Eggs (Europa Editions, 2020), translated from the Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd.

In this Service95 Book Club conversation hosted by Dua Lipa, author Vincent Delecroix talks about the 2021 English Channel disaster that inspired his novel Small Boat (Hope Road Publishing, 2025), translated from the French by Helen Stevenson, and his decision to write from the perspective of a bystander observing calamity.

In this Books Are Magic event, Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda reads from her English translation of Yoko Tawada’s essay collection Exophony: Voyages Outside the Mother Tongue (New Directions, 2025) and discusses Tawada’s defamiliarization of the Japanese and German languages in a conversation with fellow translator Susan Bernofsky.

In this Literature Translation Institute of Korea interview, Kyung-Ran Jo talks about how writing helps her preserve a sense of herself and shares her process of starting with a voice before subject matter. Jo’s novel Blowfish (Astra House, 2025), translated from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim, is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

In this McNally Jackson Books event, Polly Barton reads from her English translation of Mai Ishizawa’s debut novel, The Place of Shells (New Directions, 2025), and talks about her experience researching the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in order to capture the historical, emotional center of Ishizawa’s writing in a conversation with Eliza St. James.

Jennifer Acker, founder and editor in chief of the Common, answers questions about the journal’s mission, slush piles, and her editorial process in this virtual event with Becky Tuch for the Lit Mag News Roundup. An interview with Acker about the Common’s fifteenth anniversary is featured in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.